CCT333 Tutorial 6 Wiki Question: Look over examples of her biomimetic principles applied to products in the slideshow located at http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/02/0209_green_biomimic/index_01.htm and write a short, one paragraph synopsis for each of your three favourite product designs. Describe why you like the design in your responses.
Products are an integral part of our consumer lifestyle. More and more people, due to better education and ample disposable income, can now better afford luxury items and products. The innovators are trying to find ways to better themselves, so that producing such products are efficient and the designs are environment and user friendly. Such is the novel concept of Biomimicry, the practice of designing according to the natural principles. It is a method by which designers look to biological research for clues to how organisms solve complex problems. There have been a few designs that use this concept.
The High speed train: Japan's 500 Series Shinkansen bullet train is one of the fastest in the world and Biomimicry was used when designing such a technological marvel. The train's design is based on two nature’s organisms: the owl and the kingfisher. The owl is one of the quietest birds and the designers studied what feature enables this quality, and integrated that feature into the design of the train, making the train extremely quiet when travelling at extremely high speeds. Also, the train’s front end mimics the kingfisher’s beak which allows the least amount of resistance when the bird dives into water. The designers incorporated this feature into the train to reduce air resistance of the train entering and leaving a tunnel. Such additions not only make the train faster and more air-resistant, but they are also less likely to add to the noise pollution. With such benefits, this design is extremely important to the Japanese people as it reduces their travelling time and diminishes the overall noises in the surroundings.
Echolocation: The technology seen in the world today has allowed to create such a design, where the cane sends sound waves that sense upcoming objects and in a 'tactile' motion, allow for the person holding the cane to be warned of upcoming objects. This design is very useful and efficient and allows the visually impaired a greater safety and understanding of what is around them. The basic cane is used by most visually impaired, they are still risking because of how little efficiency it offers. This piece of technological marvel, aided by the idea of biomimicry will not only help the visually impaired in their daily lives, but will also provide safety and comfort for their family members knowing that they would be safe.
Self-Healing Pipes: Brinker Technology, located in Aberdeen, Scotland developed pipes that fix themselves through “platelets” before they experience major problems such as leaking or cracking. These specially designed “platelets” travel to the damaged areas in the pipe, latch on, cluster together (like platelets in the human bloodstream) to fix the pipes for a short period of time. These platelets contain radioisotope that mark the area of the leak so that engineers over time can determine what areas of the pipe are in need of repair. This innovation is vastly important in the pipe system that runs our water and such as any damage in the system may rupture the whole process.
Look over examples of her biomimetic principles applied to products in the slideshow located at http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/02/0209_green_biomimic/index_01.htm and write a short, one paragraph synopsis for each of your three favourite product designs. Describe why you like the design in your responses.
Products are an integral part of our consumer lifestyle. More and more people, due to better education and ample disposable income, can now better afford luxury items and products. The innovators are trying to find ways to better themselves, so that producing such products are efficient and the designs are environment and user friendly. Such is the novel concept of Biomimicry, the practice of designing according to the natural principles. It is a method by which designers look to biological research for clues to how organisms solve complex problems. There have been a few designs that use this concept.
The High speed train: Japan's 500 Series Shinkansen bullet train is one of the fastest in the world and Biomimicry was used when designing such a technological marvel. The train's design is based on two nature’s organisms: the owl and the kingfisher. The owl is one of the quietest birds and the designers studied what feature enables this quality, and integrated that feature into the design of the train, making the train extremely quiet when travelling at extremely high speeds. Also, the train’s front end mimics the kingfisher’s beak which allows the least amount of resistance when the bird dives into water. The designers incorporated this feature into the train to reduce air resistance of the train entering and leaving a tunnel. Such additions not only make the train faster and more air-resistant, but they are also less likely to add to the noise pollution. With such benefits, this design is extremely important to the Japanese people as it reduces their travelling time and diminishes the overall noises in the surroundings.
Echolocation: The technology seen in the world today has allowed to create such a design, where the cane sends sound waves that sense upcoming objects and in a 'tactile' motion, allow for the person holding the cane to be warned of upcoming objects. This design is very useful and efficient and allows the visually impaired a greater safety and understanding of what is around them. The basic cane is used by most visually impaired, they are still risking because of how little efficiency it offers. This piece of technological marvel, aided by the idea of biomimicry will not only help the visually impaired in their daily lives, but will also provide safety and comfort for their family members knowing that they would be safe.
Self-Healing Pipes: Brinker Technology, located in Aberdeen, Scotland developed pipes that fix themselves through “platelets” before they experience major problems such as leaking or cracking. These specially designed “platelets” travel to the damaged areas in the pipe, latch on, cluster together (like platelets in the human bloodstream) to fix the pipes for a short period of time. These platelets contain radioisotope that mark the area of the leak so that engineers over time can determine what areas of the pipe are in need of repair. This innovation is vastly important in the pipe system that runs our water and such as any damage in the system may rupture the whole process.